As computer networks have been put to greater use, the task of managing such networks has become more sophisticated. It is now common to network together a large number of server computers, sometimes referred to as server appliances. E-commerce companies build and maintain networks having perhaps thousands of computers in close proximity to each other (in a room perhaps) and rent computing capacity to a variety of users for a monthly fee. Companies that host World Wide Web sites, for example, buy or lease a large numbers of server computers that are coupled together by means of a local area network and provide high speed Internet access to all the server computers. One physical location with many computers can host many web sites having a wide variety of different purposes and degrees of sophistication.
Another example of a facility with large numbers of networked computers would be an information technology center of a business that uses the computers to run the business. The computing power of a main frame computer can be approximated by multiple networked computers. Each of the networked computers may perform different functions where in the past all of these functions were performed by a mainframe running individual jobs. Often the multiple networked computers can be just as effective in performing their computing function.
When multiple server computers are connected to multiple so called client computers, either by means of a local area network or a wide area network, the server computers must be managed or configured. The server computer must be configured in order for it to carry out certain tasks. Typically, the server performs a special function or task. For instance, a Web server only stores a set of web pages. Another server might only handle accounting functions etc. One given the task of administering the server logs on to the server (possibly remotely over a network) in order to configure and manage the server. As the number of server computers coupled together by means of a network increases, configuring the multiple server computers becomes more difficult. Prior art software is available which allows multiple ‘clone’ computers to be set up or configured based on the configuration of one other computer that is the model for configuring the multiple clones.
If each computer setup is unique and has its own requirements, the cloning process will not be of use since it cannot achieve the desired goal of individual setup and control over the multiple server computers coupled to the network. Instead a user will be forced to individually configure each of the server computers according to his or her network needs.